Thrust LifterSpace. For most people, it's just an abstract concept, like Hollywood or an honest politician. For you, it's a day job. Sure, you won't find "rescuing trapped space miners" on your resume, but that's because you don't have a resume. You're known in this galaxy simply as "The Captain." Most folks think you're a hero. Others think you're just plain nuts. But one thing's for sure--they all call YOU when it's a matter of life or death.

You see, mining has never been the safest occupation, but multiply it by ten--make it a a hundred--when you're talking space mining. The rewards are great, but so is the danger. When all you've got is a half centimeter of neoprene-coated nylon between you and vacuum, though, it's nice to know that someone like you is up there watching your butt.

It's never been easy, but I don't have to tell you that, Captain. But now we're getting reports of unidentified flying objects in sector 42--aliens, if you can believe it. All the other pilots are too spooked to even enter the sector. I need you go there, Captain, and rescue those Chilenoids. Get'em out of the tunnels and mountains and bring them back to their home base.

I suspect this is a one-way mission, Captain. So I'll just say goodbye, and it's been an honor serving with you.

Sincerely,

Admiral Blount

Thrust Lifter is a game of timing and precision. Guide your lander into narrow tunnels, avoiding collisions with walls, fires, lava, electricity, and all manner of aliens. Get to the Chilenoids before they run out of oxygen and bring them back to the home pad before taking off to your next destination.

Features:

15 beautiful, massive levels for you to navigate

Five original songs composed by Matt Barton with keyboards and real electric guitar

Hi, guys! I'm back this week with part 3 of my interview with Jay Barnson. This is probably my favorite segment, with some really heartfelt discussion about dealing with criticism and struggling on despite a lack of financial resources. There's also plenty of sight gags, including a special Skyrim book, a blistering "major site" review of Frayed Knights, and much more!

I'm up to 6,324 subscribers--still 676 left to go if I'm going to make my 7K by 2012 goal. Please help spread the word by posting this or other episodes on your favorite blog, forum, or social networking sites.
Download the video here: mattchat126.mp4.
Download the audio here: mattchat126.mp3.
As always, if you like what you see, consider setting up a subscription ($5 a month is most excellent) or one-time donation. The subscriptions work great; just set it and forget it, no need to bother with it again. And you can, of course, cancel at any time. $5 a month is nothing to you, but everything to me. :)

Jay is back this week to talk more about his work on Frayed Knights and its many inspirations and precedents, including his favorite CRPG--Ultima VII.

NOTE: The above video has some missing footage around the 28 minute mark. The version below has been corrected.mattchat125.mp4. You can also grab an audio-only feed here: Matt Chat 125.mp3.
Don't forget to shop at GOG using my affiliate link! Some great stuff this week for adventure game lovers.

This week debuts my new interview series with the Rampant Coyote, aka Jay Barnson. You probably know Jay from his blog and game site, as well his fantastic indie CRPG Frayed Knights: The Skull of S'makh-Daon, which yours truly helped to be beta test. In this segment we talk about Jay's extensive industry background, which includes some projects you've probably heard of if you owned a PS1--Twisted Metal and Warhawk! Enjoy.

As always, you can download the video. This week also marks the beginning of my Subscriber Goal of 7,000 subs by the end of the year. As of this writing, I'm at 6,256, so quite a bit of work left to go. If you have a forum, blog, Reddit, Twitter account, or WHATEVER, please post there about your favorite episodes and try to spread the word so we can grow our community into a force to be reckoned with! Thanks!

Mayhem: Play it now in your browser!Here's my game "Mayhem by Matt" now fully playable in your browser! Blast those planes, crush those blocks, destroy the mighty PLANE GOD OF ROBOT DEATH that waits for you at the end...!

Mayhem by Matt
The music in this version is by Kevin MacLeod. My old music wouldn't work because they were in MIDI format. I also made some gameplay and coding tweaks, particularly to the collision code. Enjoy!

Overall, the conversion process wasn't bad for this one...Mostly just cleaning up bad code from the original. I learned a lot of stuff making Jeepney Jeepers that I was able to apply here, though I still left some of the spaghetti--hey, if it works, don't fix it, right? Have fun! Just click "read more" to play the game. NOTE: For whatever reason, if you're on Firefox you may not be able to click on the "START" button below. Just hit your ENTER key instead!

Streets of LitigationThis is a story that's sure to get you upset if you're a fan of remakes: Streets of Rage Fan Remake Taken Down At Sega's Request. It looks like the developer (Bomber Games) really went all-out, adding a HUGE amount of new material. Unfortunately, it all came down immediately after goons at SEGA sent them the old C&D. I came across this news via Rampant Coyote, who has a strong position on the issue--why put all that effort into a risky venture when you obviously have what it takes to make an original title?

Our good friend Konstantinos of Gnome's Lair has posted an interview with Mike Rose, author of the upcoming book 250 Indie Games You Must Play. The book and the author sound great! I think this will definitely be a must-have for all of us interested in truly innovative game development. Perhaps it's a bit controversial, but I really like the fact that he focused on PC/Mac indie games, and every game in the book will play on a modern PC. That's of course good news for anyone who's worried that a particular title will is unavailable on their available platforms (I'm actually quite curious about what notable indie titles are NOT available on PC or Mac). The book is also sprinkled with quotations from designers and developers and boasts color screenshots. Please buy the book using the link to the left to support Armchair Arcade.

This week, Cordes is back with several fascinating insights into the world of adventure games and horror. We talk about the difference between horror films and horror games, storytelling, why adventure games should be sorted by their plot and not as a gameplay genre, and much more. There's quite a bit of meat here for anyone interested in designing an adventure game or wondering how they work. Download the audio here.

I was able to successfully upload Mayhem (now "Mayhem by Matt" since Mayhem was taken) to YoYo Games. I'm pretty proud of my first serious effort with Gamemaker 8. I thought it would be available to play in a browser via the plugin, but guess I was wrong. At any rate, if you do enjoy it, please rate it.